86 foreign-rights deals done (down from 99 last year, mainly because I only took on one client in 2014): 17 in Asia, 3 in Brazil, 10 in Mexico/Latin America, and 56 in Europe

2 TV and major motion picture deals (one not announced and yet and the other, sadly, was cancelled half way through the negotiation, much to our dismay)

50 print runs for my longest-selling title, Jamie Ford’s HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET—which originally published in 2009. Up from 46 just last year. The Energizer Bunny of novels with millions sold!

The first novel is published to great fanfare and much commercial success.

The dream-come-true of overnight success. Well, I’d like to tell you something about that. Overnight success is a fabrication created by media outlets because it makes for a good story.

Ninety-nine-percent of the time, overnight-success stories are fiction. Most of these stories don’t divulge that the author ghostwrote ten novels for other people, or wrote three of their own novels that are tucked away because the author was working on craft.

In real life, what is the magic number—the number of novels written before a writer gets picked up by an agent, sold, and published?

I’ll tell you right now, it’s not one. If you poll a large number of authors and ask them how many novels they wrote before their first one sold, and then if you average the numbers they give you, my sense is that you will land right around four.

One of the truths I highlight at writers conferences is that for more than half of my clients, I passed on the first project they sent me. It wasn’t until they sent me a later, more mature work that our agent-author love match bloomed.

Why do I tell you all this? If you’ve just completed your first novel, awesome. Celebrate this huge achievement. But it doesn’t mean much if it doesn’t sell, or if you independently publish it and it doesn’t get much traction.

Keep on writing. Your magic number might be two or six or ten. My guess is that if you are passionately writing with ten novels under your belt, success is just around the corner.

At the beginning of 2015, I implemented new submissions guidelines. Instead of reading queries and then requesting sample pages, I now request that authors include the first ten pages of their manuscript along with their query letters.

What a difference! Instead of reading only 45 full manuscripts (like I did in 2014), I read 87 full manuscripts in 2015, plus 129 sample pages, and although many of these projects weren’t right for me, they did end up being right for another agent.

Now, having tried this new submissions process for a year, I can definitely identify some pros and cons.

PRO: I’m guessing writers probably love it. It gives them a chance to wow me with some opening pages, whereas before, if they didn’t perfectly nail the query letter, they might have been out of luck.

CON: Sometimes it takes me weeks longer to respond to queries than I would like. If I know I have to read some pages with it, I can’t just breeze in and get it done in 30 minutes. I need at least an hour to read the sample pages attached.

PRO: I’ve learned that some writers can nail the query letter, but their actual pages are not quite ready for an agent to read. And I can decipher this pretty quickly. This allows me to ask for full manuscripts of novels that are ready.

CON: It’s more pressure for the writer to really nail those opening pages.

PRO: The number of novels I read all the way to the end went up in 2015. It’s pretty rare for an agent to read an entire manuscript if they know early on that the project isn’t for them. I actually read many more novels to the conclusion before making a decision about offering representation.

CON: Man, I was a bit slow in getting back to some writers. I had several manuscripts for an embarrassingly long period of time.

INTERESTING TIDBIT: When I do ask for a full, I almost always make my decision on whether it’s right for me within the first 60 pages.

3 : new clients, two of whom sold at auction for six figures. One deal is public, the other is not yet announced. The third client is going on submission next month!

29,000+ : estimated number of queries read and responded to

87 : full manuscripts requested and read (up from 45 last year)

129 : number of sample pages requested and read (down from 856 last year. See my January Newsletter column Think Like An Agent below to learn why we requested far fewer sample pages this year than we have in years past.)

2 : number of projects currently on submission

71 : foreign-rights deals done (down from 99 last year, mainly because I only took on one client in 2014), 14 in Asia, 3 in Brazil, 3 in Mexico/Latin America, and 51 in Europe

4 : TV and major motion picture deals

46 : number of print runs for my longest-selling title, which is Jamie Ford’s HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET—which originally published in 2009. Twelve for the hardcover version, 34 for the paperback—four of which occurred in 2015! Crazy for a title to still be getting reprints after six years.

It’s that magic time of year when I tally up the numbers and share with everyone Kristin’s Yearly Stats! Last year we reported numbers on the whole agency, but I figured it would be fun to just take a look at my own year in review. Please note that sales figures are approximations rather than exact calculations.

Enjoy!

9

books sold

99

foreign-rights deals done (down from 128 last year). Twenty-nine were deals made in Asian territories, and the other 70 were for the rest of the world. All 99 foreign-rights deals were done on behalf of 12 of my clients.

1

new client (I actually wasn’t reading much during 2014 but I’m actively reading in 2015!)

35,000+

estimated number of queries read and responded to

45

full manuscripts requested and read (down from 67 last year)

856

number of sample pages requested and read (down from 972 last year)

4

number of projects currently on submission

6

TV and major motion picture deals (I actually did all 6 in November and December!)

3 million+

copies in print/sold for my bestselling long-running series this year

2 million+

copies in print/sold for my bestselling individual title

2.5 million+

copies sold for my bestselling hybrid author

3 million+

ebooks sold for two of my bestselling indie-publishing-only authors.

31

number of print runs for the longest-selling title

9

conferences attended (which includes Bologna Book Fair, BEA, and Frankfurt Book Fair)

I’d like to cordially welcome you to the new year! Out with the old and in with the new but before we move on, I know readers love to get the tally of our end-of-year statistics. This went out to our eNewsletter readers first but for the archives, here’s the list.

Enjoy!

40
books sold (up from 33 last year).

128
foreign rights deals done (way up from 83 last year—holy cow!).

7
number of new clients (down from 16 total last year: 3 for Kristin and 4 for Sara).

35,000+ or some big number…
estimated number of queries read and responded to. Down from last year as we closed queries in the month of December.

67
full manuscripts requested and read (down from 81 last year).

972
number of sample pages requested and read (down from 1029 last year).

2
number of projects currently on submission

3
tv and major motion picture deals – Kristin

2.8+ million
number of copies in print/sold for my bestselling long-running series this year

1.5+ million
number of copies in print/sold for my bestselling indvidual title

1.6+ million
number of copies sold for my bestselling hybrid author

3+ million
number of ebooks sold for my bestselling Indie-only publishing author

300,000+
number of of copies in print/sold for my bestselling debut series

800,000+
number of of copies in print/sold for Sara’s bestselling author

13
number of conferences attended — 6 for Kristin (which includes Digital Book World, BEA and Frankfurt Book Fair), 5 for Sara, 2 for Anita.

31
number of Kristin’s career New York Times Bestsellers (up from 20 just last year). I did 11 more in 2013 alone. Wowza!

32
total number of New York Times Bestsellers for NLA as an agency (Sara had her very first with Jason Hough’s THE DARWIN ELEVATOR this summer. Woot!)

130
number of consecutive weeks on the NYT bestseller list for a Kristin author

170
number of physical holiday cards sent

468
number of electronic holiday cards sent

Not telling it’s so embarrassing
number of eggnog chai consumed in the months of November and December.

Lots
number of late nights reading on my living room chaise with Chutney

STATUS: Off and running. Need to play catch up on everything that wasn’t completed by Dec. 19 when I headed out for winter break. And I’m so close to finishing up the text for the new website so we can finally launch!

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? BITTERSWEET by Hoodoo Gurus

Happy New Year! I hope your 2013 is off to a raucous start!

I’ve got contract work aplenty. Sara has an offer on the table and signed somebody new literally as we were closing. The query inbox is crammed with 341 queries from folks who wanted to send in December but couldn’t because we were closed to queries that month.

33books sold (slightly down from last year).

83foreign rights deals done (up from 65 deals last year).

16number of new clients (5 for Kristin and 9 for Sara). Updated to 11 for Sara –she signed two authors right as we were closing for the year!

32,000+ or some big number…estimated number of queries read and responded to. Down from last year as we closed queries in the month of December.

81full manuscripts requested and read (up from 69 last year).

1029number of sample pages requested and read (up from 618 last year).

3number of projects currently on submission

4tv and major motion picture deals2.5 million number of copies in print for my bestselling series this year1.2 millionnumber of copies in print for my bestselling title this year300,000+number of copies sold for my bestselling eBook-only title this year

23number of conferences attended (8 for Kristin (including BEA and Bologna Book Fair), 1 for Angie, 8 for Anita, and 6 for Sara)

20 Forgot Manga edition of SOULLESS that hit #1! Smacks forehead. so it’s not 19 but 20number of career NLA New York Times Bestsellers (I actually sat down to count them up. I was surprised it was that many.)

1number of books named to Publisher’s Weekly list of top books of the year (that would be Sara’s THE PECULIAR by Stefan Bachman this year).

135number of physical holiday cards sent

450number of electronic holiday cards sentUh, 30?number of eggnog chai consumed in the months of November and December. I’m embarrassed to say.

Lotsnumber of late nights reading on my living room chaise with Chutney

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? YOU DON’T BRING ME FLOWERS by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond(oh the nostalgia….)

Happy New Year! I hope your 2012 is off to a rip-roaring start. Mine is. I’ve got exciting news on the film front for two of my authors and an auction unfolding next week.

I even signed a new author when we were closing for the holidays. Talk about cramming stuff in as the year closed.

My New Year’s resolution is to be a better blogger in 2012 so I better get started.

41books sold (up from 28 last year). Why the big jump? Two agents on fire during the year.

65 foreign rights deals done (pretty much on par with last year).

7number of new clients (Kristin and Sara combined)

36,000+ or some big number…estimated number of queries read and responded to. We get so much spam these days, despite good filters, it’s hard to tell. We estimate anywhere from 80 to 100 a day. Times that by 365 and you get approximately 36,000.

69full manuscripts requested and read (down from 98 from 2010)

618number of sample pages requested and read (this is down from last year–mostly because I took a several month hiatus from reading submissions actually. I’m back to reading lots in 2012 though so bring it on).

5number of projects currently on submission

2tv and major motion picture deals

2.2 million number of copies in print for my bestselling series this year

1.1 millionnumber of copies in print for my bestselling title this year

8 for Kristin (including BEA, RWA and Frankfurt), 4 for Anita, and 9 for Saranumber of conferences attended

13number of career NLA New York Times Bestsellers (who says that’s an unlucky number!)

1number of books named to Publisher’s Weekly list of top books of the year (that would be LEGEND by Marie Lu this year)

105number of physical holiday cards sent

451number of electronic holiday cards sent

20number of eggnog chai consumed in the month of December. It was probably 31 but that makes me look like a glutton!

This week has just been crazy with no time to blog. Nobody wants to go into the holiday season with a bunch of stuff still outstanding and cluttering the desks. I know authors who have submissions with us wouldn’t mind an answer either. So, our goal is to finish everything up by today.

With that in mind, I’ve been hitting the office at 8 in the morning and pretty much every night this week, I didn’t leave until after 8 p.m. (and some evenings not until after 9).

Well, I’m going to have to come in tomorrow as not everything is done but hey, I came close. Blogging just wasn’t an option with everything that needed to wrap up—including 3 deals that I literally was negotiating this week.

Still, I can’t end the season without one more post. The year 2010 would not be complete without my annual Year In Statistics entry so voila! Here it is. Enjoy!

28books sold (up from 15 last year and mostly thanks to Sara! Also interesting to note, of the sales I did, all but 3 were deals well into the six-figure range and two were 7+. Sweet!)

STATUS: Last week was just tough. Battling being sick so just didn’t know when I’d be in the office or not. So not pleasant….

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE by Mat Kearney

When I was at the Rocky Mountain Writers Conference, I gave a couple of workshops. In my classes, I always give the daunting statistics on how many queries we get, how many sample pages we read, and how many authors we actually take on from what we read.

Yep, the icky stuff.

Then I tell them to cover their ears and say, “la, la, la I’m not listening” because what it boils down to is that these stats should be white noise to you aspiring writers. You can hear it, but it’s in the background. Know the stats so you have a keen understanding of the reality behind the business of publishing but then don’t let it stop you. .

If you love writing, if you are passionate about it as your dream, then you are going to write no matter what. Publication is one possible end result but whether that happens are not should not be the only determiner of why you write. You write because you have to. It’s like breathing. Absolutely necessary.

Besides, you never know when toughness and persistence will finally pay off so don’t lose sight of that!

SOLD!! As announced in PW, Jillian Manning at Blink has bought New York Times and USA Today bestselling author CJ Lyons’ YA psychological thriller The Color of Lies. High school senior Ella Cleary has synesthesia—a condition that causes her to see a riot of colors with each interaction. But when she meets a boy she can’t read, she discovers he holds the secret behind her parents’ death. Publication is scheduled for Fall 2018; Kristin Nelson brokered the deal for North American rights

Congrats to Josh Malerman on a Starred review in Publishers Weekly for GOBLIN: “Fans of creepy, eerie, and genuinely unsettling horror will devour (or be devoured by) this set of vignettes about the aptly named town of Goblin, Michigan."

Via Deadline Hollywood, Jamie Ford’s bestselling debut novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is being developed into a film. Producer Diane Quon announced that she has acquired the film rights with Joseph Craig of StemEnt as producer & George Takei as executive producer.

In a Deadline Hollywood exclusive: Paramount Pictures has acquired film/TV screen rights to DRACULby Dacre Stoker & J.D. Barker--the first prequel authorized by the estate of Bram Stoker. The film will be developed as potential directing vehicle down the line for Andy Muschietti, reteamed with IT producers Barbara Muschietti and Roy Lee.

SOLD!! Via Publishers Weekly, in a six-figure North American rights agreement, Dacre Stoker and author J.D. Barker sold a Dracula prequel entitled DRACUL to Putnam after a five-house auction. DRACUL is about a 21-year-old Bram Stoker meeting the demonic being—“whom he traps in an ancient tower, all the while scribbling the events that led him there”—who will go on to become the subject of his iconic 1897 novel. Mark Tavani at Putnam acquired Dracul from Agent Kristin Nelson, which has also sold in the U.K. (to Transworld) and in France (to Michel Lafon). Dacre Stoker is the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker.

SOLD!! As announced in Publishers Weekly: in a six-figure acquisition, David Levithan at Scholastic bought Ally Carter’s standalone YA debut, Not If I Save You First. Levithan took North American rights to the book from agent Kristin Nelson, who has an eponymous shingle; Nelson described the work as “a gender-swapped YA Romancing the Stone.” In the novel, a Secret Service agent’s daughter must travel into the wilds of Alaska to save the son of the president--but not if she kills him first. The book is set for a March 2018 release.

As announced in Hollywood Reporter, Sandra Bullock is set to star in Netflix's post-apocalyptic thriller of Josh Malerman's Bird Box. Danish helmer Susanne Bier will direct from a screenplay written by Eric Heisserer (Arrival). Production begins in September 2017.

Huge congrats to Sherry Thomas on hitting the USA Today Bestseller list at #86 for her debut mystery in the Lady Sherlock Series: A STUDY IN SCARLET WOMEN.

7/20/2017 Hollywood Reporter breaks news: Hugh Howey'sSAND adaptation is in the works at SyFy from Universal Cable. Gary Whitta (Rogue One) will pen the adaptation, and Marc Forster (World War Z) will direct the pilot.

SOLD!! As announced in PW Children's Bookshelf, Emilia Rhodes at HarperTeen has bought at auction in a very nice deal The Girls of Cottonwood Hollow, a YA contemporary novel with a twist of magical realism from debut author Miranda Asebedo. After a tornado unearths the century-old diary of the dying woman who cursed the girls of a rural Kansas town with strange talents, brash mechanic Rome and her two best friends discover that the curse and the stories surrounding the town legend aren’t all true. Publication is planned for fall 2018; Kristin Nelson did the deal for North American rights.